New Year, New Goal: Newsletter as Book Plan
Bright Spots posts this year will serve as early drafts of a book I'd like to write. The more feedback I get from you, the better the book will be.
My 2023 New Year’s resolution was to write more, so I launched this newsletter. In looking back, I realized that my posts tended to fall into four buckets: 1) good news on the climate you may have missed; 2) professional development frameworks and practices; 3) personal reflections; and 4) connecting with nature. This year, my goal is to weave these themes together into a book. I plan to publish early drafts of book section as newsletter posts for feedback that can help sharpen my thinking, improve the final output, and hopefully help me find a publisher.
I’m writing a book because I believe that we have the ability to solve the climate crisis, but only if people believe that they have the agency to make a difference. I further believe that my 15 years in the climate space, deep interest in helping people find fulfillment in their professional lives, and ability to connect the personal and professional to what the climate needs can help readers identify how they can contribute to building a more sustainable future.
To be more specific, the book will start with a personal narrative focused on how I got to here; transition to describing frameworks that may help readers identify their zones of genius; dive into case studies on setting climate goals, optimizing existing business operations to make them more sustainable, and transcending paradigms through innovation; provide thoughts on how we can rebalance our relationship with nature; and close with a call to action for us to work together to realize a better future.
While I have a detailed outline, I’m not going to share it here, as my outlines always change and I’d rather not have it fed into an AI algorithm by someone looking for help “writing” a climate book.
If you know anyone who many be interested in this endeavor, please share this newsletter with them. And if you know anything about the book publishing industry, please get in touch!
Looking forward to 2024,
JR